Job Description for a Mental Health Aide
Mental health aides, also known as nursing and psychiatric aides, are responsible for helping to care for the sick in hospitals, in mental health facilities and sometimes at home. They are considered direct care workers because they treat people with long-term health issues.
Other People Are Reading
-
Duties
-
Under the supervision of nursing and medical staff, mental health aides perform a wide range of functions including helping patients to eat, bath and get dressed. They do basic housekeeping tasks like making beds, straightening up patients' rooms and serving meals. They may help patients get out of bed, take walks or write letters home. They are responsible for monitoring patients' physical and mental state and often provide physical care, such as skin care.
Patients may stay at a facility for weeks or months, allowing aides to develop personal relationships with them. Psychiatric aides in particular help patients develop life and social skills, such as taking care of a home and developing and maintaining friendships. They play games and watch TV with them, as well as participating in group activities such as field trips or group discussions. Mental health aides are often the first to notice if there is a change in mental health status and are the first to report them to nursing and medical staff.
Work Environment
-
Those interested in working as a mental health aide should be prepared to perform physically demanding work. Their caseloads are often overflowing; they do a great deal of standing and walking and may do quite a bit of heavy lifting, which requires them to be trained in specific lifting and moving techniques.
Mental health aides empty bedpans, change soiled bed linens and help to redirect confused, disoriented or combative patients. Aides must expect to deal with patients whose illnesses cause them to become violent.
The hours an aide works are pretty standard, around 40 hours a week; however, because many of these patients require 24-hour care, they may be expected to work all shifts, including very early morning and overnight.
-
Training and Requirements
-
Mental health aides do not need any advanced degree to perform their duties, but they do need a high school diploma or GED. Students can prepare for their career in high school by studying math, science, psychology, sociology and health.
Many facilities prefer to hire individuals who have had prior experience as a nurse's aide and some require the completion of a formal training program. However, most mental health aides are trained on the job under the supervision of nursing and medical staff. Some of the training that aides go through include lectures, workshops and hands-on training.
Job Outlook
-
This particular field has a high turnover rate, due to high stress, physical demands and unpleasant job tasks. Job growth for mental health aides is considered slow, and the highest demand is in working with older people with mental illness.
Wages
-
As of 2006, psychiatric aides earned between approximately $9 to $13 per hour, with the most experienced workers being the highest paid. State facilities paid the most, residential facilities paid the least, and hospitals fell somewhere in between.
-
References
Resources
- Photo Credit health centre sign. access to health centre image by L. Shat from Fotolia.com
